That's a very good question. For years, a waste facility was in development in Nevada. The site at Yucca Mountain was canceled due to public outcry. Now there is no facility for storing long-term nuclear waste from most sources. No facilities are currently being developed either.

Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy
is produced by splitting the nucleus of an atom. This releases a huge amount of energy.

How Nuclear Power Plants Work

Nuclear power plants use uranium that has been concentrated in fuel rods (
Figure
below
). The uranium atoms are split apart when they are hit by other extremely tiny particles. These particles must be controlled or they would cause a dangerous explosion.

Nuclear power plants like this one provide France with almost 80% of its electricity.

Nuclear power plants use the energy they produce to heatwater. The water turns into steam, which causes a turbine to spin. This, in turn, produces electricity.

Nuclear Power as a Resource

Many countries around the world use nuclear energy as a source of electricity. For example, France gets about 80% of its electricity from nuclear energy. In the United States, a little less than 20% of electricity comes from nuclear energy.

Nuclear energy does not pollute. If there are no accidents, a nuclear power plant releases nothing but steam into the air. But nuclear energy does create other environmental problems. Splitting atoms creates dangerous radioactive waste. These wastes can remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. Scientists and engineers are still looking for ways to keep this waste safely away from people.

Nuclear power is a controversial subject in California and most other places. Nuclear power has no pollutants including no carbon emissions. However, power plants are not always safe. The long-term disposal of wastes is a problem that has not yet been solved. The future of nuclear power is murky. Find out more at:
http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/new-nuclear/

Consequences of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is clean. It does not pollute the air. However, the use of nuclear energy does create other environmental problems. Uranium must be mined (
Figure
below
). The process of splitting atoms creates radioactive waste. This waste may be dangerous for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. As yet, there is no long-term solution for storing the radioactive waste.

Uranium mine in the Czech Republic.

For three decades new nuclear power plants were not built in the U.S. Accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, Ukraine made people nervous about harnessing nuclear power (
Figure
below
).

Abandoned bunker near the site of the Chernobyl disaster.

Because nuclear energy is clean, nuclear power was making a comeback. But the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan changed attitudes back. This accident seems to have resulted in a new fear of nuclear power. The disaster was caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. These events seriously damaged the plant.

Nuclear power is a controversial subject. Nuclear power has no pollutants. Nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gases. However, accidents do happen, and they can be devastating. The long-term disposal of wastes is a problem that has not yet been solved. The future of nuclear power is murky.